Nebraska 35, Iowa State 17
Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007
Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, Neb.)
On the game coming down to a lot of big plays
"I think that's exactly right, it came down to a lot of big plays, and they cost us, both on offense and on defense. They had a great trick play in there that they ran on us. We were playing really well on defense, and stopping the run fairly well, and they run the toss double pass. That might have gotten to us a little bit mentally. We scrambled a little bit there for a while to get our defense back on track. Offensively, it was kind of the same thing. I thought we threw the football well, I thought there were some really great plays that our guys made in some key points of the game, especially on some third and fourth downs. Some big plays got us there at the end with a couple interceptions. Again, at the end of the day, the bottom line is if you turn the ball over four times, no matter where they get the ball after you turn it over, it's really hard to win. One thing we did good today and that we stressed all week is we were trying to get turnovers back from our defense. We haven't had three since the first game, and we had some takeaways in there. When you lose the ball four times, especially against a team like Nebraska, there's just no way you're going to win. It came down to those things."
On if Nebraska did anything that surprised them
"They had some new wrinkles. I think defensively they shored up some things that last week we thought they would do again. We were hoping that we could run the ball better than we could today, but they did some really nice things on defense, adjustments and things, to be able to negate our eight and nine-man front football, our running game. That's why we had to throw it so much today. Of course we got down behind so we had to throw again to come back. I thought they did a great job coaching today."
On the fake-punt play call
"That was close. I think that would have really been a situation our football team would have fed off of if we could have gained the momentum of converting that. They made a great play on it, and it was the right call, and I'd call it again. But we were a yard short, and that would have helped us."
On the great start
"The bottom line is that we got up 10-0, and the game plan was really unfolding they way we had hoped it would. Then again, like I said, the momentum swung a little bit there towards halftime, and few big plays turned the game around later in the first half."
On if it was disappointing to only get three points off Nebraska's first two turnovers
"Absolutely. We've got to be able to convert. That's the thing that people are doing to us, when we get turnovers right now, when people force turnovers on us, they're getting points when they get those turnovers. Again, you can sit there and look at time of possession, you can look at total yards, you can look at all those things and make yourself feel good, but at the end of the day right now we got beat and we got beat good. So all that stuff doesn't matter to me. I look at the final result, and the final result's not good, and I won't even pretend to be happy with it."
On running back Jason Scales' performance
"I thought Jason did a really nice job tonight. I was proud to see him. I think he did some really good things and I think it took him a little while to get juiced up, and get a feel for the game. I was real happy with him coming in there and have him play the whole game, and he did it, and I think he did a good job."